can i completely skip the following

[Ramoray]

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Well i had an unforseen occurence this past 3.5 weeks and the fact is i maybe got 2 days of studying so lost 3 weeks of studying that i had planned. Now i am pressed for time since i had a schedule and have exactly 5 weeks left. i know myself and there are certain things, esp pharm i am weak on so i know what i have to do. but i am lookign to wipe out time consuming things.. i am thinking of just completly not doing review for the following
Embryo- except heart defects and neuro defects
Anatomy- I only know thorax and abd. i want to skip the rest
biostats

basically id focus mostly on path, pharm, physio, neuro and micro and behav sci and HY mol bio and scrap everything else. is this doomsday?

 

[Pox in a box]

Well i had an unforseen occurence this past 3.5 weeks and the fact is i maybe got 2 days of studying so lost 3 weeks of studying that i had planned. Now i am pressed for time since i had a schedule and have exactly 5 weeks left. i know myself and there are certain things, esp pharm i am weak on so i know what i have to do. but i am lookign to wipe out time consuming things.. i am thinking of just completly not doing review for the following
Embryo- except heart defects and neuro defects
Anatomy- I only know thorax and abd. i want to skip the rest
biostats

basically id focus mostly on path, pharm, physio, neuro and micro and behav sci and HY mol bio and scrap everything else. is this doomsday?

I want you to do well but I can't help to comment on what you're saying here. First off, you are the one who gets the most annoyed by people asking the exact same type of question. It seems like you've managed to still post on average 5 or 6 posts a day even though you say you only studied 2 days out of the last 3.5 weeks. The facts don't add up. You've been on SDN a LOT. If you only learn anatomy for thorax and abdomen, I honestly think that you would miss every single question in anatomy on the exam that I took. You should know the innervation of the hand as well as blood supply (especially regarding injuries to the upper limb) COLD. If you don't know biostats, you're going to sink. First Aid is decent but probably not enough (though a perfunctory review of median, mode, and mean might help you to get 1 question). If you're behind, I'd suggest you set up a schedule (which does not include SDN) and stick with it. Allow at least 3 days at the very end to review your First Aid (hopefully annotated). Good luck!

 

[Ramoray]

posting on sdn a few times a day took 10 minutes and no energy, its alot different but thanks for the tips but ill disregard since anyone who says if you dont know biostats youll sink doesnt sound credible

 

[omarsaleh66]

1)Blue boxes are enough for anatomy. Pay special attention to the anatomy involved in procedures.

2) Biostats shouldnt be ignored either. i had about 1-3 biostats questions per block. so thats like 10-15 biostats questions. These are easy if u put in a little time to study them. Platinum Vignettes for biostats and behavoiral science has 20 simple very easy to read pages on biostats. That and First AId - u are good to go.

3) Embryo just need First Aid.

gluck

 

[Pox in a box]

posting on sdn a few times a day took 10 minutes and no energy, its alot different but thanks for the tips but ill disregard since anyone who says if you dont know biostats youll sink doesnt sound credible

Whatever you say chief. You'll laugh whenever you realize you guessed on all of them after the test. FYI, biostats for the USMLE is not a complex topic to study. Why wouldn't you want to get these questions right on the exam? There's only so many ways to ask a biostatistics question. They would have to really try hard to lace them with double and triple-jumps like they do in other topics. Good luck with your method, however.

 

[4424]

5 weeks is still a very long time to study assuming you study everyday. i wouldn't be scrapping anything with that much time. just re-make a schedule. if you search there are some 28day schedules. i do agree that biostats/behsci should not be ignored, they were more complex than first aid but worth a tiny bit more of time to get correct. i doubt i'm being helpful but i just think you should make a new schedule and you should fit everything in a 5wk schedule.

 

[dynx]

5 weeks should be enough, not ideal I don't think, but doable. I agree with the biostats comments above...the thing w/ biostats is that is it a very quick thing to study and will help you get those extra questions right, in my opinion you should not skip it. Anatomy on the other hand (and ONLY from my singe test experience) seems to be less high yield. With limited time and the number of questions they could ask you may be better off limiting yourself to blue boxes and FA to save time.

If you are having trouble with pharm...what I did was spent an hour and a half every morning looking it over, I would memorize one page of FA, look over the previous days page, study something else, then rifle through it again at the end of the day. That typ3 of repetition really helped it stick for me and made the volume seem more bearable. I made sure to finish it 2 weeks early so I could add whats not in FA (I am in he minority thinking FA is not enough) and dedicate one or two full days to just pharm, its a good confidence builder on those days to see just how much you know and kinda fun to be able to search through other stuff you think may be high yield. Hope this helps, good luck.

 

[Smurfette]

5 weeks should be enough, not ideal I don't think, but doable. I agree with the biostats comments above...the thing w/ biostats is that is it a very quick thing to study and will help you get those extra questions right, in my opinion you should not skip it. Anatomy on the other hand (and ONLY from my singe test experience) seems to be less high yield. With limited time and the number of questions they could ask you may be better off limiting yourself to blue boxes and FA to save time.

If you are having trouble with pharm...what I did was spent an hour and a half every morning looking it over, I would memorize one page of FA, look over the previous days page, study something else, then rifle through it again at the end of the day. That typ3 of repetition really helped it stick for me and made the volume seem more bearable. I made sure to finish it 2 weeks early so I could add whats not in FA (I am in he minority thinking FA is not enough) and dedicate one or two full days to just pharm, its a good confidence builder on those days to see just how much you know and kinda fun to be able to search through other stuff you think may be high yield. Hope this helps, good luck.

5 weeks is plenty of time. Studying for much longer than that gives diminishing returns since you start forgetting stuff you knew cold a few weeks ago.

And like everyone else has said, dedicating 4-6 hours to study and learn your biostats is worth it. They're not that complicated once you sit down and look at them.

 

[kcrd]

Well i had an unforseen occurence this past 3.5 weeks and the fact is i maybe got 2 days of studying so lost 3 weeks of studying that i had planned. Now i am pressed for time since i had a schedule and have exactly 5 weeks left. i know myself and there are certain things, esp pharm i am weak on so i know what i have to do. but i am lookign to wipe out time consuming things.. i am thinking of just completly not doing review for the following
Embryo- except heart defects and neuro defects
Anatomy- I only know thorax and abd. i want to skip the rest
biostats

basically id focus mostly on path, pharm, physio, neuro and micro and behav sci and HY mol bio and scrap everything else. is this doomsday?

I didn't read the other's respsonses, so perhaps someone said this already, but I found my test to be heavy on the brachial plexus for the anatomy questions. I had about one per section. So skip anatomy, but at least review brachial plexus if you don't know it well.

 

[RLMD]

I didn't read the other's respsonses, so perhaps someone said this already, but I found my test to be heavy on the brachial plexus for the anatomy questions. I had about one per section. So skip anatomy, but at least review brachial plexus if you don't know it well.

This would have been bad advice for my exam. My exam was heavy on anatomy, at least 10 per block, and not a single brachial plexus question and only one hand innervation, and one rotator cuff question. everything else was lower limb, pelvic region, abdomen, head and neck, neuro, etc. Grain of salt, grain of salt.

 

[HiddenTruth]

This would have been bad advice for my exam. My exam was heavy on anatomy, at least 10 per block, and not a single brachial plexus question and only one hand innervation, and one rotator cuff question. everything else was lower limb, pelvic region, abdomen, head and neck, neuro, etc. Grain of salt, grain of salt.

MINIMUM 70 anatomy q's?? You gotta be' kidding me! That's awesome, NBME wants to see how much we can memorize and vomit--be producing physicians with great intellect! 👎

 

[Ramoray]

i know anatomy is something you have to know. but with hearing this past year anatomy seems pretty hit or miss. I think i could study for a month just anatomy and still not do a whole lot better than not studying and just using what i remember and common sense no? I mean i guess it depends on what you remember but i was studying anatomy prety hard the first weeks of my studying and i realized the harder you study, most of the **** isnt going to show up, i dont know, if you get 70 anatomy questions or something than i just think its bad luck. thanks everyone for the tips, ill def modify

 

[Pox in a box]

i know anatomy is something you have to know. but with hearing this past year anatomy seems pretty hit or miss. I think i could study for a month just anatomy and still not do a whole lot better than not studying and just using what i remember and common sense no? I mean i guess it depends on what you remember but i was studying anatomy prety hard the first weeks of my studying and i realized the harder you study, most of the **** isnt going to show up, i dont know, if you get 70 anatomy questions or something than i just think its bad luck. thanks everyone for the tips, ill def modify

Hey Ram, just study every subject. You're not the kind of person from what I've gathered that would just brush off a topic. You've exhausted too many other obscure and non-testable topics to give up on these now. You have time. Just spend a couple of days on anatomy (just a couple because like you hinted, the law of diminishing returns does apply and there's really no way of predicting what you'll have on your exam). If you blow off behavioral science, however, I think you are shooting yourself in the foot. It's easier to study for this topic because there is less complexity to the way the questions are asked (at least for biostatistics). You either know it from studying or you don't. I found the biostatistics and behavioral science to be incredibly straightforward. I didn't feel like any of the questions were off the beaten path. Good luck.

 

[bigfrank]

This is amazing. I can't believe you (Rammie) have that much time for unopposed study. It's no wonder you're wasting time. I like my school: ~2 weeks after M-2 classes to take the exam and then on to the third year. All this time on your hands has, indeed, been counterproductive.

To answer your question, 5 weeks should be plenty of time to review virtually every main topic tested on Step 1.

 

[UCSBMed1]

This is amazing. I can't believe you (Rammie) have that much time for unopposed study. It's no wonder you're wasting time. I like my school: ~2 weeks after M-2 classes to take the exam and then on to the third year. All this time on your hands has, indeed, been counterproductive.

To answer your question, 5 weeks should be plenty of time to review virtually every main topic tested on Step 1.

Wow you guys seriously only had 2 weeks to study for the boards? Ouch...

 

[bigfrank]

Wow you guys seriously only had 2 weeks to study for the boards? Ouch...

And our class Step I average was considerably higher than 230, with zero failures.

Off to the hospital. Gotta get this stupid Sub-I over with!!!